Examining the Associations between COVID-19-Related Psychological Distress, Social Media Addiction, COVID-19-Related Burnout, and Depression among School Principals and Teachers through Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationships between COVID-19-related psychological distress, social media addiction, COVID-19-related burnout, and depression. The research, which was designed according to the relational survey model, was conducted with the participation of 332 school principals and teachers who received graduate education in the field of educational administration. Research data were collected through online surveys and then structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test and analyze the proposed hypotheses. The study’s findings revealed that COVID-19-related psychological distress strongly predicted COVID-19-related burnout. In this context, as the psychological distress associated with COVID-19 increased, the sense of burnout associated with COVID-19 also increased. However, it was found that burnout associated with COVID-19 significantly and positively predicted depression. SEM results revealed that COVID-19-related psychological distress directly affected COVID-19-related burnout, depression, and social media addiction. In addition, it was determined that an indirect effect of COVID-19-related burnout and social media addiction exists in the relationship between COVID-19-related psychological distress and depression.

Internet use and internet-based addictive behaviours during coronavirus pandemic

“…When adaptive coping mechanisms (e.g., social recreation) are hindered, people might seek maladaptive substitutes depending on personal distress. The existing body of research confirmed the association of psychological factors [greater depression, anxiety, stress, and some personality characteristics (impulsivity, alexithymia, positive/negative affect)] with Internet use and Internet-based addictive behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic [1 ▪ ,4 ▪▪ ,56,57]. Furthermore, some sociodemographic factors were also associated with increased Internet use and Internet-based addictive behaviours [1 ▪ ,7 ▪ ,24,25,41].…”

COVID-19 and the Adaptive Role of Educators: The Impact of Digital Literacy and Psychological Well-Being on Education—A PLS-SEM Approach

“…Psychologists have raised concern over a possible rise ( Shukla & Manohar, 2021 ) of such problems owing to COVID-19. Recent studies ( Karakose et al, 2022a ) offer consistent evidence that the psychological distress, burnout, and depression have increased over the period of the pandemic and show an affinity to social media addiction. Moreover, the findings that the less educated are more exposed to depressive symptoms ( Gupta & Sahoo, 2020 ) draws the attention of educators in the ICT literacy-based new digital pedagogies.…”

“…It explores how the coronavirus swigs the education of the digitally underdeveloped societies in the adaptation process to a remote teaching and learning mode. The study contributes to the limited literature on the psychological state of teachers during the pandemic ( Karakose et al, 2022a ) focusing on the educator's adaptive role to improve the effectiveness of remote mode teaching and learning.…”

Adopting the Pedagogy of Trust and its Impact on Learning

“…With the emergence of the Covid 19 pandemic in early 2020, these stable modes of education were completely disrupted [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. With the enforcement of the social distancing norms and the abrupt closure of the in-person mode of education, institutions around the world began to evolve and adapt to new realities [10][11][12][13] and new challenges [14][15][16][17][18]. Online learning became a new form of education that continues to be embraced globally [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”